by Dana Kester-McCabe
Welcome to the revived "Faithful Witness" of the Friends Media Project.This entry is about the spiritual basis for the leading behind the Friends Media Project and was previously posted some time ago. The main idea: Personal faith integrated with corporate worship and discernment should enliven us to a Spirit-led way of life and public ministry.

"Where are the Quaker voices in media? Three centuries ago, the Publishers of Truth took to the public squares and couldn't be silenced. Jail windows had to be boarded up to deter imprisoned Friends from their insistent proclamation. Exasperated opponents compared them to "mushrooms and toadstools springing up in a night ... they put themselves to work as soon as they are whelped."
- Pamela Calvert - Conversation Of The World

I have always found it interesting that one of the ways that early Friends referred to themselves was as “Publishers of Truth.” Not only were they “Children of the Light” and a “Religious Society of Friends Seeking Truth.” But they felt as though they had found some measure of that Light and its Truth. Enough so that they felt it was important to share it – to “publish it.” Early Friends lived their Truth at great peril and sacrifice. They spoke out in the town square and at the end of church sermons. They were willing to try new things like pamphleteering to get the message of their experiences out to others. All these were done under very real threats of violence, imprisonment and impoverishment.

Today we live in comparative ease and yet often we are afraid to see, live, and publish our Truth. We see Truth as some lofty ideal we can not attain nor live up to. So how could we possibly spread it around? In many ways most of us live within an unspoken spiritual confinement that began with the Quietist movement of the 18th and 19th century. Only the most outspoken Friends are willing to suffer the insults of being called crazy or foolish to stand for the Truth as they have experienced it. We even use some of our traditional testimonies as excuses not to be engaged in the conflicts of our day.

For example, simplicity is often raised as a reason why we should shy away from new technologies that might help us to better share our ministry in the world. They are expensive and complicated to learn. There are also valid concerns about using products and technologies that are produced with unjust or ecologically damaging practices. Our modern world is very complex. It is almost impossible to live simply and fully understand how we might bring integrity to all our consumer choices. That is not say we should not try. But while we try to figure these things out, the world races on without us, without any regard for the Truth as we have experienced it. Our concerns cause us to put our Light “under a bushel.”

As Friends, we also do this because we are all on our own personal spiritual journeys. As a faith community it is wonderful that we accept and support each other in our solitary private pursuits. But we have lost a sense of integrated faith that early Friends had. They did not come to worship to simply make themselves feel better and face their week. They took their personal convictions and through corporate worship they joined together to hear a corporate Truth. They heard clearly God’s invitation to publish that Truth. Pamela Calvert reminds us, in her essay Steps Toward a Quaker Media Practice, that George Fox said "Let all nations hear the word by sound or writing, spare no place, spare not tongue nor pen..." This was a higher calling that quickened their spirits and their minds to action. There was no distinction between privately living their faith and witnessing through public ministry.

We do not need to live at the same frantic pace as the world around us. But at the same time, our practices need not slow us or make us inactive. We should seek a way to live fully engaged in this life. Our testimonies are some part of that Light which we have experienced. They should help us live that Truth – not be used one against another to cancel each other out. As we try to hear God’s call and to answer it, clarity will come through corporate worship. God is calling us to publish our corporate Truth today just as God has called people all through eternity. God is calling us to integrate our inner faith with our corporate Truth, to make our personal witness a public ministry.
Queries for your consideration:
Are we willing to truly experience Truth in the manner of Friends?
How can we use our testimonies to quicken our spirits and our minds into action?
What Truth is God calling our faith community to publish today?

Next entry: What does it mean to be a faithful witness?

• Atom
• RSS 2.0